The collage above shows 4 pictures. The picture on the right is a photo of a model with call outs to the various "beauty products" that are used by the average American female. The picture in the bottom center, is a picture of a detergent bottle with a large label warming about the health risks of the average detergent. The bottom left picture is of a bacteria culture, used here to represent the growing resilience of bacteria to know anti-bacterial products. The top left picture shows a bottle of detergent being poured directly into a fish bowl. This last photo was graphically spliced and edited together by me from stock photos found online. All photos are cited below. These photos are meant to show you the dangers of our current methods and obsession with extremely unsafe hygiene products. This matrix presentation will discuss the issues with the current ideas around cleanliness and hygiene, as well as the potential causes for this way of thinking.
Slow, Clean Death.
It was a surprise to me when I first started researching this topic, to find that it was an already hotly debated and well discussed point of interest in the sustainability minded community. The issue of high toxins and low standards in the personal hygiene supplies and home care supplies industry has been around for long enough, where I would have expected to hear much more about it in my daily life. Perhaps with the growing rate of headlines relating to something new causing cancer, it was lost to the background noise of the daily routine. However, there also exists the possibility that American's (and I say American's here solely because my experience with foreign cultures is far too limited to say otherwise) obsession with cleanliness and the appearance of hygiene has lead us to take reach higher and higher extremes with our cleaning products. Perhaps our culture has adopted the mentality that you can never be too clean, germs are the enemy, and harsh chemicals are the miracle cure in the war on the unclean. In the main body of this text, I will present the facts and details of the research I have done, and try and pin down the reason why we, as a nation, have adopted this insanity of poisoning ourselves.
Detergents and Toxins: The bulk of my concern comes from the use of harsh, known or suspected toxins of various types in our hand/body soaps, shampoos, laundry detergents, dish soaps, and most strongly, under-arm deodorant and perfumes. If you were to examine the average 20 something year old American Female's vanity cabinet, you would most likely find an arsenal of creams, lotions, sprays, and conditioners, all meant to maintain an appearance of beauty as advertised in the national media. There are vast arrays of papers and arguments on the topic of the media's influence of the perceived self-image, especially focused on the female population, however there is evidence argued that the males face just as much social pressure, and I will not argue this point, but simply take it to have enough merit to present a possible explanation as to why this average American female has so many things in her bathroom cabinet. These "things" are, according to the Environmental Health Association of Nova Scotia, could contain more than 10,000 ingredients, and according to a 2009 British study looking at over 2,000 women, the average woman wears 515 of these ingredients a day. The vast majority of these ingredients (over 90%) have never been tested for human health. Some of the most common hazardous ingredients are: AHA and BHA, which are used in anti-wrinkle creams and are believed by the FDA and Health Canada to contribute to UV skin damage, which can lead to skin cancer, Aluminum compounds, which are active ingredients in antiperspirants, are found by a 2005 British study published in the Journal of Inorganic biochemistry to be absorbed by the skin and cause estrogen-like effects. Estrogen has been positively linked to breast cancer development, and thus the correlation can be made, but not easily proven, that the aluminum compounds lead to an increased risk of breast cancer in women. Among many others on the list are chemicals that are listed by the CDC, FDA, and EPA as dangerous to human health. These include teratogens, immune system toxins, human carcinogens, reproductive system toxins, developmental toxins, and substances known to be respiratory hazards. These are just the tip of the chemical iceberg, however they should be enough to make anyone second guess what they are spreading on their skin. My favorite example for the toxic hygiene argument, centers around deodorants. Besides the various toxins and carcinogens in the leading brands of deodorant, there are also chemicals meant to aid in the penetration of the human body's natural defenses against toxins, the skin. These chemicals are specifically engineered to aid in the absorption of the slew of known carcinogens and neuro-toxins into the user’s body, dangerously close the lymph nodes. These dangerous chemicals have been included in our beauty products either by legal loopholes or in many of the cases; the current system of regulations has simply not started in depth checks for these chemicals. Besides the personal cost from hygienic products, there is the environmental cost that comes when all of these soaps and detergents and creams, are washed away down the drain, into the soil, and into the water supply. These chemicals, which we still know too little about to guarantee safety, then accumulate in the food chain, and have unknown effects. As cited in the film Homotoxicus, the toxic runoff from all of these man-made chemicals and toxins builds up and causes adverse effects to wildlife and are starting to show themselves in a few localized cases where the human population is at an increased exposure level to the toxins. Along with the obvious concerns of toxins getting into our food and water, there are a multitude of other environmental risk factors with the production, consumption, and disposal of these cleaning products. Our obsession with clean has increased the market for cleaning supplies, and developed the marketing model of harsher and harsher chemicals needed to provide "better" results for the consumer. These cleaning supplies many times create large amounts plastic waste as containers and debris from the cleaning supplies ends up in landfills or in the world's water supplies. The various aerosol cans, disinfecting sprays, anti-bacterial soaps, and perfumes, are not contained in a closed cycle of use and disposal, but rather are let to seep into the natural environment and build up over time. For example, consider someone waxing and washing their car. Most likely they will not be collecting the contaminated water that runs off the car after the rinse for treatment, and in the cases of people living in suburban or rural areas, the chance of that run-off not going into a local waste water treatment plant via a sewer network is high.
Reasons We Clean It is hard to fault someone for wanting to be clean. Cleanliness is indeed beneficial as it, in general, keeps you healthy and lets you live a rich, full life. Daily hygiene should not be abandoned, just modified. There exists a wide range of safe, non-toxic, organic products on the market, that can substitute all of the non-safe toxins that are currently in the main stream of use. However, it is important to examine the reasons why we, as a culture, value cleanliness as much as we do. Why is that even knowing that there is a risk, even if it is argued to be a small one; that such a risk to human life would be an acceptable tradeoff for smelling "good", and looking "clean". When we think of clean and dirty, the words are often tied to positive and negative descriptions respectfully. We judge people every day based on their appearances, and among that judgment is clean or dirty. That verdict of someone, whether they are a clean individual, or an individual lacking personal hygiene, is then accompanied by a wide range of assumptions. If the individual is clean, we assume they are wealthy, in good health, and a respectable member of society, and if the individual is dirty or unkempt, we assume them to poor, mischievous, hoodlums, and have no self-respect. In reality these two people could be a heartless conman out to milk you dry, and an RPI student during exams week (okay, so most likely we are poor, so that is accurate, but we can look nice too!). Cleanliness has been a symbol of class and wealth for centuries, as even during early England, the royalty were powdered up to give the impression of being pristine and untouched by filth, as to set them apart from the common masses. In today's society, they ready access to an arsenal of chemicals and brews can be used to allow any of the "common masses" to sacrifice health for beauty and appearance of health.
Other Concerns with Clean Obsession: (I did not research these links in the matrix, but had them as thoughts towards the end)
- Food waste
- superstores buy large food quantitites, and throw ~1/3rd away due to visual imperfections.
- foodwaste from "dirtied" food (food fell on the floor, or onto table, throw it away)
- Overshowering (?)
- are showers needed every day? Probably not in the colder climates. Water waste and over consumption.
- super bacteria & weak immune systems cased by hiding from and killing off 99.99% of bacteria.
The collage above shows 4 pictures. The picture on the right is a photo of a model with call outs to the various "beauty products" that are used by the average American female. The picture in the bottom center, is a picture of a detergent bottle with a large label warming about the health risks of the average detergent. The bottom left picture is of a bacteria culture, used here to represent the growing resilience of bacteria to know anti-bacterial products. The top left picture shows a bottle of detergent being poured directly into a fish bowl. This last photo was graphically spliced and edited together by me from stock photos found online. All photos are cited below. These photos are meant to show you the dangers of our current methods and obsession with extremely unsafe hygiene products. This matrix presentation will discuss the issues with the current ideas around cleanliness and hygiene, as well as the potential causes for this way of thinking.
Slow, Clean Death.
It was a surprise to me when I first started researching this topic, to find that it was an already hotly debated and well discussed point of interest in the sustainability minded community. The issue of high toxins and low standards in the personal hygiene supplies and home care supplies industry has been around for long enough, where I would have expected to hear much more about it in my daily life. Perhaps with the growing rate of headlines relating to something new causing cancer, it was lost to the background noise of the daily routine. However, there also exists the possibility that American's (and I say American's here solely because my experience with foreign cultures is far too limited to say otherwise) obsession with cleanliness and the appearance of hygiene has lead us to take reach higher and higher extremes with our cleaning products. Perhaps our culture has adopted the mentality that you can never be too clean, germs are the enemy, and harsh chemicals are the miracle cure in the war on the unclean. In the main body of this text, I will present the facts and details of the research I have done, and try and pin down the reason why we, as a nation, have adopted this insanity of poisoning ourselves.
Detergents and Toxins:
The bulk of my concern comes from the use of harsh, known or suspected toxins of various types in our hand/body soaps, shampoos, laundry detergents, dish soaps, and most strongly, under-arm deodorant and perfumes. If you were to examine the average 20 something year old American Female's vanity cabinet, you would most likely find an arsenal of creams, lotions, sprays, and conditioners, all meant to maintain an appearance of beauty as advertised in the national media. There are vast arrays of papers and arguments on the topic of the media's influence of the perceived self-image, especially focused on the female population, however there is evidence argued that the males face just as much social pressure, and I will not argue this point, but simply take it to have enough merit to present a possible explanation as to why this average American female has so many things in her bathroom cabinet. These "things" are, according to the Environmental Health Association of Nova Scotia, could contain more than 10,000 ingredients, and according to a 2009 British study looking at over 2,000 women, the average woman wears 515 of these ingredients a day. The vast majority of these ingredients (over 90%) have never been tested for human health. Some of the most common hazardous ingredients are: AHA and BHA, which are used in anti-wrinkle creams and are believed by the FDA and Health Canada to contribute to UV skin damage, which can lead to skin cancer, Aluminum compounds, which are active ingredients in antiperspirants, are found by a 2005 British study published in the Journal of Inorganic biochemistry to be absorbed by the skin and cause estrogen-like effects. Estrogen has been positively linked to breast cancer development, and thus the correlation can be made, but not easily proven, that the aluminum compounds lead to an increased risk of breast cancer in women. Among many others on the list are chemicals that are listed by the CDC, FDA, and EPA as dangerous to human health. These include teratogens, immune system toxins, human carcinogens, reproductive system toxins, developmental toxins, and substances known to be respiratory hazards. These are just the tip of the chemical iceberg, however they should be enough to make anyone second guess what they are spreading on their skin. My favorite example for the toxic hygiene argument, centers around deodorants. Besides the various toxins and carcinogens in the leading brands of deodorant, there are also chemicals meant to aid in the penetration of the human body's natural defenses against toxins, the skin. These chemicals are specifically engineered to aid in the absorption of the slew of known carcinogens and neuro-toxins into the user’s body, dangerously close the lymph nodes. These dangerous chemicals have been included in our beauty products either by legal loopholes or in many of the cases; the current system of regulations has simply not started in depth checks for these chemicals.
Besides the personal cost from hygienic products, there is the environmental cost that comes when all of these soaps and detergents and creams, are washed away down the drain, into the soil, and into the water supply. These chemicals, which we still know too little about to guarantee safety, then accumulate in the food chain, and have unknown effects. As cited in the film Homotoxicus, the toxic runoff from all of these man-made chemicals and toxins builds up and causes adverse effects to wildlife and are starting to show themselves in a few localized cases where the human population is at an increased exposure level to the toxins. Along with the obvious concerns of toxins getting into our food and water, there are a multitude of other environmental risk factors with the production, consumption, and disposal of these cleaning products. Our obsession with clean has increased the market for cleaning supplies, and developed the marketing model of harsher and harsher chemicals needed to provide "better" results for the consumer. These cleaning supplies many times create large amounts plastic waste as containers and debris from the cleaning supplies ends up in landfills or in the world's water supplies. The various aerosol cans, disinfecting sprays, anti-bacterial soaps, and perfumes, are not contained in a closed cycle of use and disposal, but rather are let to seep into the natural environment and build up over time. For example, consider someone waxing and washing their car. Most likely they will not be collecting the contaminated water that runs off the car after the rinse for treatment, and in the cases of people living in suburban or rural areas, the chance of that run-off not going into a local waste water treatment plant via a sewer network is high.
Reasons We Clean
It is hard to fault someone for wanting to be clean. Cleanliness is indeed beneficial as it, in general, keeps you healthy and lets you live a rich, full life. Daily hygiene should not be abandoned, just modified. There exists a wide range of safe, non-toxic, organic products on the market, that can substitute all of the non-safe toxins that are currently in the main stream of use. However, it is important to examine the reasons why we, as a culture, value cleanliness as much as we do. Why is that even knowing that there is a risk, even if it is argued to be a small one; that such a risk to human life would be an acceptable tradeoff for smelling "good", and looking "clean". When we think of clean and dirty, the words are often tied to positive and negative descriptions respectfully. We judge people every day based on their appearances, and among that judgment is clean or dirty. That verdict of someone, whether they are a clean individual, or an individual lacking personal hygiene, is then accompanied by a wide range of assumptions. If the individual is clean, we assume they are wealthy, in good health, and a respectable member of society, and if the individual is dirty or unkempt, we assume them to poor, mischievous, hoodlums, and have no self-respect. In reality these two people could be a heartless conman out to milk you dry, and an RPI student during exams week (okay, so most likely we are poor, so that is accurate, but we can look nice too!).
Cleanliness has been a symbol of class and wealth for centuries, as even during early England, the royalty were powdered up to give the impression of being pristine and untouched by filth, as to set them apart from the common masses. In today's society, they ready access to an arsenal of chemicals and brews can be used to allow any of the "common masses" to sacrifice health for beauty and appearance of health.
Other Concerns with Clean Obsession: (I did not research these links in the matrix, but had them as thoughts towards the end)
- Food waste
- superstores buy large food quantitites, and throw ~1/3rd away due to visual imperfections.
- foodwaste from "dirtied" food (food fell on the floor, or onto table, throw it away)
- Overshowering (?)
- are showers needed every day? Probably not in the colder climates. Water waste and over consumption.
- super bacteria & weak immune systems cased by hiding from and killing off 99.99% of bacteria.
Websites Used:
http://lesstoxicguide.ca - Environmental Health Association of Nova Scotia
http://www.natural-skincare-authority.com/ - Natural Skincare Authority (privately owned & run website)
http://green.wikia.com/wiki/Toxins_in_Personal_Care_Products -Green Wiki (open source encyclopedia)
http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/organics/food/fd-basic.htm -food waste statistics (from EPA)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap -Soap definitions / ingredients (wikipedia)
http://candleandsoap.about.com/b/2010/02/15/dangerous-chemicals-in-your-soap-and-toiletry-products.htm -soap FAQ
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-super-bacteria.htm -Super Bacteria explained
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibiotic_resistance - how antibiotic resistances work (wikipedia)
http://life.gaiam.com/article/why-disinfectants-and-antibacterials-are-overkill-5-health-safe-alternatives -super bacteria risk
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/21/health/21cons.html - counter argument, for antibacterials, NYTimes
http://eartheasy.com/live_nontoxic_solutions.htm - Non-toxic home cleaning product supplier/distributor
http://www.helium.com/items/867043-do-americans-take-the-concept-of-being-clean-to-extremes - Debate website arguing weather Americans are extreme cleaners
Pictures:
http://www.shell.com/home/content/chemicals/innovation/product_advances/natural_alternative_detergents/ - (detergent bottle pouring)
http://www.dezeen.com/2007/08/16/fish-bowls-by-roger-arquer/ (fishbowl)
http://smartklean.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/toxic-detergents1.jpg (detergent)
http://treeoflifehealth.blogspot.com/2010/05/toxic-beauty-in-depth-look-at-chemicals.html (woman model with callouts)
Scholarly Articles:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1021/es0326569 - by American Chemical Society, in Environmental Science & Technology, 2003